The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 1001

 Chapter 1001

 

Hooooooook!

The Blue Dragon, his wings so torn they now drooped like rags, pushed itself across the sea with great difficulty.

“I’m sorry… Uncle…”

Evelyn, bleeding from every inch of her body, gently caressed Loctar’s scales with the one hand she had left.

[Do not speak!]

With trembling hands, Loctar tried to pour mana into Evelyn’s body, but it only leaked out without entering.

“It’s too late.”

Evelyn shook her head, as if everything was already over.

“We were almost there, but in the end…”

She let out a faint, bitter laugh, recalling how she had stopped herself when she saw Sella at the very end.

“But… you know what?”

Evelyn looked down at the hand that had embraced Sella and smiled.

“Even though I knew mom’s soul wasn’t there, I was so happy. Because I had never once hugged mom before.”

Sella had hugged her many times. Even before she died, she had held Evelyn tightly and told her she loved her.

But Evelyn had never once embraced Sella first. Just being able to hold her mother’s hand and hug her, even at the very end, made her happy.

[…]

Loctar only growled softly, as if overwhelmed with sadness.

“I’m sorry for being so stubborn all this time.”

[Stop talking and save your strength!]

Feeling Evelyn’s warmth fade, Loctar, for the first time, dropped formal speech and shouted.

“Thank you… for everything, Uncle.”

Evelyn reached out with her weakening hand and drew a faint smile that

seemed ready to disappear at any moment.

[W-Wait!]

“As the last member of the royal family of the Sirken Kingdom, I hereby

order the release of Sir Knight Loctar Deport from his duties.”

[Evelyn!]

Loctar stopped flying and stared at her.

“Uncle… I hope you can find happiness in our place. I’m so sorry…”

With those final words, Evelyn closed her eyes and let her hand fall. The

vitality and warmth of her body began to melt away.

[Ah…]

Loctar hunched over as he saw Evelyn’s limp hand slide from his grip.

[Aaaaaaaagh!]

As if sharing in the sorrow of the last draconian, the sea roared with waves higher and deeper than ever before.

*   *   *

Sssssss.

Loctar swept his hand across the ice pillar and shook his head.

“To be happy alone? I can’t do that.”

Looking at Evelyn, frozen within the pillar of ice, he slowly lowered his head.

Evelyn had told him to live happily, but that was something he couldn’t do.

With his injuries, he didn’t have much life left anyway, and he didn’t want to

send off a child who feared loneliness all by herself.

As Loctar let out a long sigh, staring blankly at Evelyn’s corpse—

Creaaaak.

He heard someone entering the cave.

“……”

Without making a sound, Loctar gripped the sword leaning against the wall.

He had resolved to cut down whoever it was.

That was when a small flame floated up before his eyes like a lantern.

“So this is where you were.”

From behind the flame, a mage with a long gray beard stepped forward.

“Biern?”

It was Biern, the high-ranking mage who had led the mages in the last war.

“How did you find this place…”

“I followed your trail. You sure went far.”

Biern let out a sigh, saying it had been quite a task to get here.

“So Evelyn… really died.”

He looked at Evelyn encased in ice and brought his hands together as if in prayer.

“If she had survived, the history of magic on this continent would have changed.”

He slowly shook his head, saying Evelyn’s talent had been more extraordinary than anyone else’s.

“I’m sorry… about what happened that day.”

Loctar lowered his head and sighed.

“It couldn’t be helped.”

Biern nodded understandingly.

“Still, we achieved our goal. The Roser Kingdom is gone.”

He let out a short laugh, saying that, at least for him, that was enough.

“Well, you weren’t after money or status anyway. You only cared about getting revenge on Roser.”

Loctar nodded and put down his sword.

“Yes… and that’s why I’m here. The final knot must be undone.”

Biern turned his gaze from Loctar to Evelyn.

“What do you mean?”

Loctar frowned.

“If we leave her like this, she’ll become an evil spirit.”

“A-An evil… spirit?”

“She died without fulfilling her goal and still has lingering attachments to the mortal world, doesn’t she?”

Biern clicked his tongue as he touched the ice encasing Evelyn.

“And keeping her sealed in ice like this only makes it worse.”

“T-Then what must I do?!”

Loctar grabbed Biern’s hand, asking for the answer.

“We’ll have to either cremate her or bury her. Though… a ritual needs to be held beforehand.”

Biern nodded, saying he could take care of that.

“Please… I don’t want to give that child any more pain.”

Loctar’s lips trembled, he already seemed mentally shattered.

“Of course.”

Biern said that a comrade’s burden was his own, and gave Loctar a pat on the shoulder.

“However, there are some items needed for the ritual. I’d like you to go fetch them. I’ll start making preparations.”

He handed Loctar a list of required items along with some money.

“Get some fresh air… and clear your head while you’re at it.”

“Ah, understood!”

Saying he was counting on him, Loctar rushed out of the cave.

“So, in the end… we meet again like this.”

Biern suddenly switched to formal speech and placed his hand on the corpse sealing Merlin.

Reflected in the ice pillar was not the old mage with the long gray beard, but a strangely handsome man with golden eyes. The Sage.

Wooooooong!

A black hole appeared in the Sage’s palm, and something within Evelyn’s chest was sucked into it.

“Hmph… Seems I might be able to use this a bit more.”

He smiled coldly as he looked down at the closed-eyed Merlin.

Twoooong!

At that moment, time came to a halt, and the entire space was washed in gray.

Raon looked at the Sage’s face reflected in the ice and let out a dry chuckle.

“So that’s how it is.”

The Sage had disguised himself as Biern and come here to extract something from Merlin’s body.

‘He must have tampered with her memories too.’

There was no way someone like Merlin wouldn’t recognize the Fallen.

It was clear the Fallen had manipulated Merlin’s soul, drained her power, and altered her memories.

“I knew things were bad for Merlin… but this is…”

Not just one person’s life. No… an entire race’s existence has been toyed with in that bastard’s hand.

Rather than erupting in his usual intense wrath, Wrath released a cold, chilling murderous intent.

Even if he has to face the consequences of causality itself, he wants to kill him with his own hands.

His eyes reddened with genuine fury as he glared at the Fallen.

“Sorry, but….”

Raon quietly shook his head.

“That bastard is Merlin’s prey.”

To kill the Sage—no, to kill the Fallen—was something Merlin had to do herself, once she woke up.

“Hoo.”

While Raon silently watched Merlin, sealed inside the pillar, with a bitter gaze, gray-hued butterflies spread their wings and flew off, revealing a new scene.

“This is….”

But looking again, it wasn’t new. It was the Para village he had first seen in Merlin’s memories.

This is where the madwoman lived. But….

Wrath narrowed his eyes.

This place is different from that memory. This is the true mental world of the madwoman.

‘It does seem that way.’

Just as his own mental world had been filled with nothing but swords and swordsmanship, it seemed Merlin’s entire mental world was this ‘Though there’s definitely a problem…’

Raon lowered his eyebrows, looking at the rings of mana that were torn apart in the air.

‘It’s completely broken.’

Those rings, like the Ring of Fire in his own mental world, were the magic circles that spun around Merlin’s heart.

Because the mana circles that Merlin possessed in reality had all been destroyed, their collapsed state was revealed here exactly as it was.

“Haa….”

Raon let out a long sigh and stepped into the village.

‘First, I need to find Merlin.’

Saving Merlin came first, so he stepped into the village.

“Uh…?”

As soon as Raon entered the village, his eyes widened.

“What is this…?”

At first, he thought they were pretty houses built of colorful bricks, but upon closer look, the walls were covered with drawings of himself.

“Urgh…”

Raon stopped in place and turned his head to the right.

Even the house on the right had its walls completely filled with drawings of his face.

The madwoman is pitiful, sure…

Wrath shook his head from side to side.

But she really is insane.

‘……’

There was no way to refute that.

‘This is driving me crazy.’

Raon let out a tired sigh and continued walking deeper into the village.

But those drawings of your face on the wall...

Wrath narrowed his eyes as he looked at the drawings.

They’re not just drawings of you.

‘Then what are they?’

They’re you… from the time you were with the madwoman.

He shook his head, saying they weren’t just drawings of his face, they were of the time the two of them had spent together.

‘Now that I look closer…’

Raon stopped in his tracks and examined the drawings more carefully.

‘I recognize every single place.’

From their first meeting, to the countless moments she startled him in her animal form, and even the days they spent together in Zieghart. In every one of those scenes, it was always the two of them.

‘It seems like Merlin…’

Raon lowered his gaze and let out a long breath.

‘She must have been remembering the days we lived together in this village.’

Especially the time when she stayed in the annex building, wearing her maid uniform, it must have been a happy time for her, judging by how many drawings there were from back then.

The mage he had thought was insane turned out to be gentler, more affectionate, and more fond of people than he’d imagined.

Step.

Raon exhaled deeply and resumed walking.

‘That place…?’

He spotted the house that had belonged to Merlin and Sella in the past. Coiled around it like a serpent, as if guarding the home, was the Blue Dragon, Loctar.

Rumble…

After briefly locking eyes with Raon, Loctar lifted his tail to open a path leading to the house.

“…Thank you.”

Raon bowed to Loctar, then stepped into Merlin’s house.

The house was even colder and more chilling than Zieghart in winter. His whole body shivered, and his hair stood on end.

Merlin sat in the middle of the living room, gazing at a canvas set with a sheet of drawing paper. Around her feet were countless unfinished drawings scattered across the floor.

“No….”

She shook her head in a trembling voice.

“I can’t remember….”

Muttering that she didn’t know, she crumpled the drawing she had been working on and threw it to the floor.

Rustle.

Raon approached from behind and picked up the drawing that had fallen.

The drawing Merlin had made showed a woman with blonde hair and red eyes, but her face was somehow distorted.

‘No way…’

Raon narrowed his eyes and checked the other drawings. They too showed a blonde, red-eyed woman, but all her facial features were missing.

‘Now I understand.’

Raon bit down hard on his lip.

‘Merlin was trying to draw Sella.’

She had longed to draw her mother, but because of the Fallen’s memory tampering, she had forgotten who she was trying to draw, and how.

‘If it’s now…’

Raon let out a quiet breath, took a new sheet of drawing paper, and stepped up behind Merlin. He gently wrapped his hands around her trembling ones.

“…Ah…”

Merlin’s eyes widened as she saw him.

“Raon? Why are you here?! You’re not supposed to be in this place—!”

“The mother I saw…”

Raon smiled faintly and guided her hand.

“She had bright blonde hair, neatly tied back like sunlight. Her eyes held a warm red glow, like looking into a campfire. Her nose stood tall, like the spine of a blade. She had a clear, refreshing presence—she was beautiful.”

Recalling the Sella he had seen, Raon guided Merlin’s hand to draw her mother.

“Your mother loved you until the very end, and you, too, loved her until the very end. What I saw was…”

As he spoke to Merlin of all the things he had seen and felt, they continued drawing together.

Because he had to tell her everything he had witnessed, a long time passed, but unlike the lonely, sorrowful story, a gentle smile bloomed at the corner of Sella’s lips in the drawing, as if welcoming her daughter.

“…This is…”

Merlin dropped the brush in her hand and opened her mouth.

“This is… my mom?”

“Yes.”

Raon nodded as he faced the image of Sella preserved in his memory, now rendered in a drawing

“…Ah.”

With Merlin’s deep exhale, soft sunlight streamed into the house that had been filled only with cold, and a gentle flame flickered to life in the fireplace.

The warm and tender air returned, the gentle atmosphere of the home where Sella and Merlin had once lived together was revived.

Whoooosh!

Following the pure light that bloomed from Merlin’s house, her shattered, collapsed mana flow began to reconnect anew.

But the flow was unlike anything before. It was her essence, the fundamental wave of mana that a Para was meant to possess.

Wuuuuung!

Eight, nine, and then ten.

As the tenth circle soared high into the air, a soft purple radiance surged across Merlin’s entire body.

“I…”

Feeling the ten rings spinning through her heart, Merlin gave a small nod.

“I remember everything now.”

Finally remembering it all, she let transparent tears fall from her deep purple eyes.

“Then let’s go.”

Raon reached out his hand to Merlin, who was holding the drawing close to her chest.

“Evelyn.”

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